सर अल्फ्रेड HITCHCOCK

ABOUT ALFRED HITCHCOCK
He was born Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, his father was a green grocer called William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914), his mother was Emma Jane Whelan (1863 - 1942) and he had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (Born 1890) and Eileen Hitchcock(born 1892). He grew up in a very strict Roman Catholic family. He attended St Ignatius college and a school for engineering and navigation. In 1914, when Hitchcock was 15 years old, his father died. It was around 1920 when Hitchcock joined the film industry, he started off drawing the sets (Since he was a very skilled artist) and he met Alma Reville and sometime later he married her. Hitchcock had his first shot of being the director of a film in 1923 when he was to direct the film "The Number 13", though the production was stopped. Hitchcock didn't give up then. He directed a film called "The Pleasure Garden" in 1925, a British/German production, which was very popular. In 1926, Hitchcock made his first trademark film, "The Lodger". They had one child called Patricia Hitchcock (born 7th July 1928). His success followed when he made a number of films in Britain such as "The Lady Vanishes" (1938) and Jamaica Inn (1939), some of them which also made him famous in the USA. David O. Selznick, an American producer at the time, got in touch with Hitchcock and the Hitchcock family moved to the USA to direct an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1940). It was when Saboteur (1942) was made, that films companies began to call his films after him; such as Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot, Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy. During the making of Frenzy (1972), Hitchcock's wife Alma suffered a paralyzing stroke which made her unable to walk very well at all. On March 7, 1979, Hitchcock was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award , where he said this famous quote: "I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation, and encouragement, and constant collaboration. He started to write a screenplay with Ernest Lehman called "The Short Night" but he fired Lehman and hired young screenwriter David Freeman who re-wrote the script. Though due to Hitchcock's failing health the film was never made. Freeman published the script after Hitchcock's death. In late 1979, Hitchcock was knighted, making him Sir Alfred Hitchcock. On the 29th April 1980, 9:17AM, he died peacefully in his sleep due to renal failure.
CINEMATIC ELEMENTS
Shower scene
One of the most famous scenes in cinema history, is the murder of Janet Leigh's character in the shower. As such, it spawned numerous myths and legends. It was shot from December 17 to December 23, 1959, and features between 71 and 78 angles (the exact number is unknown). The scene "runs 3 minutes and includes 50 cuts." Most of the shots are extreme close-ups, except for medium shots in the shower directly before and directly after the murder. The combination of the close shots with the short duration between cuts makes the sequence feel longer, more subjective, more uncontrolled, and more violent than would the images if they presented alone or in a wider angle. In order to capture the straight-on shot of the shower head, the camera had to be equipped with a long lens. The inner holes on the spout were blocked and the camera placed farther back, so that the water appears to be hitting the lens but actually went around and past it. The soundtrack of screeching violins, violas, and cellos was an original all-strings piece by composer Bernard Herrmann entitled "The Murder." Hitchcock originally wanted the sequence (and all motel scenes) to play without music, but Herrmann begged him to try it with the cue he had composed. Afterwards, Hitchcock agreed that it vastly intensified the scene, and he nearly doubled Herrmann's salary. The blood in the scene is in fact chocolate syrup, which shows up better on black-and-white film, and has more realistic density than stage blood. The sound of the knife entering flesh was created by plunging a knife into a Casaba. It is sometimes claimed that Leigh was not in the shower the entire time, and that a body double was used. However, in an interview with Roger Ebert, and in the book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, Leigh stated that she was in the scene the entire time; Hitchcock used a live model as her stand-in only for the scenes in which Norman wraps up Marion's body in a shower curtain and places her body in the trunk of her car.
Kind of Work
o Hitchcock once commented, "The writer and I plan out the entire script down to the smallest detail, and when we're finished all that's left to do is to shoot the film. Actually, it's only when one enters the studio that one enters the area of compromise. Really, the novelist has the best casting since he doesn't have to cope with the actors and all the rest."
o Hitchcock's films were strongly believed to have been extensively storyboarded to the finest detail by the majority of commentators over the years.
o Hitchcock never even bothered looking through the viewfinder, since he didn't need to do so.
o If a studio asked him to change a film, he would claim that it was already shot in a single way, and that there were no alternate takes to consider.
o Hitchcock simply did not tolerate the method approach as he believed that actors should only concentrate on their performances and leave work on script and character to the directors and screenwriters.
SIGNATURE STYLE
Alfred Hitchcock. The Master of Suspense. Tim May's favorite director of all time. He goes by many titles. Hitchcock is one of the first names to come to mind when you think of directors with a signature style. He didn't vary from the genre of thriller/suspense often, but his formula is what made him great. From The 39 Steps up to The Birds he almost never made a bad or even, mediocre film.
1922-1929 The Silent EraHitchcock made many films silent. It might have been what set him up as such a visual director. In his early silent films, you can see a true honing of the style. He achieved what many other silent films didn't: good characterization.
1929-1940 The British Years
Hitchcock's move to sound with Blackmail was an amazing feat. Not only was the film excellent, but it set him off on a streak that would last him into his American years of great films. Many of his films in this era are Hitchcock classics: Murder!, The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Sabotage, The Man Who Knew Too Much...1940-1950 Early American YearsWhen Hitchcock moved to America, His films continued to grow. His first two American pictures, Rebecca and Foriegn Correspondent were both nominated for the best picture Oscar the same year. During the 40's, Hitchcock made some great films, including: Spellbound, Notorious, Rope... Hitchcock continued to hone his formula, until it reach perfection with Strangers on a Train in 1951.1951-1963 The Perfect StreakWith Strangers on a Train, Hitchcock showed that his formula of "The Wrong Man" worked every time. During this period is when Hitchcock became a household name. He made his most popular films during this period: I Confess, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, The Wrong Man, Veritgo, North By Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds.1972-1980 The Return to BritainAfter the faliure of Marnie at the box office, Hitchcock returned to Britain. He made only two more films before he died: Frenzy and Family Plot.Hitchcock never truly made a bad film. He influence hundreds of directors. You can still spot homages to Hitchcock films in movies today. He is truly one of the greatest, and, in my opinion, the greatest.So there you have it. My ten favorite directors of all time. Thank you for reading all of this. This has been very interesting.